lOOKING AT WOOD BURNING FIREPLACE INSERTS.

[MarkV]

We use one that came with our house. Does a fair job but not as good as our freestanding wood stove at another house. The one thing that really irritates me is the noise volume of the blower. If I were shopping for a new one I would sure check out how much noise it makes.

MarkV

 

[rd_macgregor]

i've seen brochures on other stove types that draw outside air, but how do they do it with an insert and not make it look ridiculous? would you have a flexible pipe that runs out the front of the stove and wraps across the hearth? i can see for a free-standing wood stove where you could mask the fresh air vent behind it, but with an insert everything has to be right in the front since they are generally put into a pre-existing hole in the masonry.

There are several ways to do this. In my installation, the whole unit is set flush with an enclosure; the air supply tube goes through the floor into the basement, where it snakes along the joists to an outside wall (all this is totally invisible in the room where the insert is located).
You're right, though. In some installations, it would be really challenging to hide, or disguise, that little air duct.

BOB

 

[Car Doc]

I think you will like it! Adding an insert was one of the best things we did as far as heat goes we really enjoy it and it flat puts out lots of basically free heat.

The fireplace itself is a total waste of space IMHO if a person is after heat mainly they look nice and all but also cost extra in insurance and are dangerous.

We put in an inexpensive Englander airtight insert (950.00) we bought at some wholesale lumber yard. I ran a 6" exhaust pipe up the existing stainless stack from it about 4 feet and sealed it to my stack with pink fiberglass insulation stuffed up around it and it drafts perfectly.

It works excellent and my insurance man took one look at it and said thats the best way to have wood heat in a house and even adjusted our policy down a little because of it.

 

[Briar Hill Brittanys]

" I use the air handler fan to circulate sometimes, but i like it in the low 60s in the bedroom to sleep comfortably."

That's what we do, run the air handler. If we have a cold snap that lasts more than a couple of days, we'll put a fan in the hallway by the farthest bedroom, blowing towards the living room where the wood stove is. It helps mix the air up.

"Is this the huge buck stove with like a 4.5 sqft box?"

Yes, it's the "huge" one. The local installation company would only install it using an 8" stainless steel liner. Our insurance did not go down, but the carrier approved the install and wrote the policy for "solid fuel" heat source. The firebox is 4.4 cubic foot (but who's counting ). The stove doesn't look so big in the hearth, but it's deep @ over 28". The hearth and all is pretty big, the opening the stove fit in is 3' x 2 1/2'. We needed the 91 stove for the scale of the fireplace, and also the BTU output. I cut wood to about 18" - 20", split it where the tree is felled, store under an open shed, keep about a weeks worth on the back patio, and move a couple of days worth inside as needed. I guess the moving about keeps the loose stuff knocked off. Also bump the pieces before bringing them inside. Believe it or not, picture posted in my other post is about 2 days worth. We'll burn 3 stacks about 35' long x 6' high. Mostly oak and hickory. Since the tornado in Joplin, I've cut maple, hackberry, mulberry, and elm. Probably start burning some of that about February.

 

[greenthumb]

We have a lopi free standing wood stove. I know they make the line of free standing stoves we have in inserts. Or stove is going on the sixth year of full time use no trouble. Except the gas company hates me.

 

[Chilly807]

The biggest complaint I've heard about inserts is that they don't radiate heat like an actual stove, which has much more exposed surface area. A blower would probably alleviate that complaint.

We have a Regency FJ1100 free standing stove, which is the smallest stove Regency makes. It does an excellent job of taking the chill off a 1500 sq.ft house, we use it to "top-up" the heat supplied from our heat pump.

Sean

 

[arrow]

I'm looking at installing a wood burning insert in my existing brick fireplace. It's essentially a wood stove that fits into the fire place opening, so it kind of looks like a metal and glass front on the fire place, but has draft control features and heat distrubution blowers like a newer wood stove.
The two I've looked at so far are by "Napoleon" and "Monessen". Any thoughts, recommendations etc?
I'ts more for emergency use in the event my oil fired hot water system isn't working, than for normal use.

cost is around $2,000 plus $1,000 installation.

Thanks

Don

To me, that is an awful lot of money to spend on something that might get less than occasional use. If emergency use is all you are concerned with, you can get a generator that would power your furnace or boiler for less than 1/3 rd the price of a fp insert. For occasional ambience, nothing beats a true fireplace when you get the inclination.

 

[Mac Matthews]

We have had a Buck Stove insert in our fire place for about 15 years. It saves us around $100 a month on heating bill. I cut the wood myself or it is a gift, so it is cheap way to go. I don't remember how much it cost but it has been worth it.

 

[clemsonfor]

Yea do not get a insert without a blower, i dont think they make them anymore as there not to good without them. I get enough btu's off my insert like i said to supply about 75% of my heating needs on my 2500ish sqft uninsulated home from my insert.

 

[Lineman North Florida]

I bought an Osburn wood stove insert and that was about 8 years ago and it has been great, I was not satisfied with our pre-fab fireplace which had a double wall 8" chimney, I just got some 6" stainless stove pipe and a flexible 90 and slid it down my existing chimney, one trick that worked well for me was that I pre-drilled a hole about 2" above the bottom of my flexible 90 and put a piece of stainless all-thread through it so I could reach up through the stove and pull the 6" down and seat it on top of the stove as in my case there wasn't enough room between the top of the stove and the top of the fireplace to work. I did have to cut my damper out of my fireplace to get it to work and that was the worst part of the job, and as someone said earlier I got some supposedly fire-proof insulation and closed up the gap between the 6" and 8" pipe just below my chimney cap and I have never had a problem.